Untitled Sermon (2)

Four “Intercessory Prayer Words” to incorporate in our prayers.

On my heart for weeks… praying for our Nation

1. Spare / Joel 2:17

The meaning of this word in the Hebrew language is to look upon and extend compassion and pity. It is to ask God to extend mercy towards us.

2. Restore / Joel 2:25

In scripture, as in this passage, it can mean to end or finish something.

3.Draw / John 12:31-32

It is the love and compassion of our heavenly Father who draws us towards Jesus so we can believe in Him..

4. Revive / Psalm 85:6

To Revive us, is to bring back to life what is dead within us.

I have been using these prayers in praying for our church, families…

We need God!

Consider this very well known passage

2 Chronicles 7:13-15 (NKJV) 13 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.

*When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people,

I think that we can all agree that there is a lot of adversity in this world today. Our nation is divided like it has not been in most of our lifetimes and it just seems to be getting worse.

Much of this is from assault of our enemy, Satan and his spiritual horde.

But I am also at the place that in my Spirit,

I believe that much of the unrest and trouble in the world today is like the truths we saw as we began studying the Book of Daniel a few months ago.

*In all that transpired from

*God was orchestrating the events: Whether it was The King of Judah (Daniel 1:2) And the Lord gave … Judah went into Babylonian captivity,

Or the passage we know as the Handwriting on the Wall (Daniel 5:26 This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it;)

This was true in each of the Kingdoms that would rise afterward… God was in control and It is God who brings Judgment on the nations. He is a just, forgiving, and patient, but Judgement is a reality…

Judah had sinned, and because of their sin, God allowed them to became slaves in Babylon!

>Don’t forget this very important truth for all generations…. God’s ultimate purpose for judgement is not for punishment, but for restoration of His people and to remedy their faults.

Joel 1:1-4 (NKJV) 1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. 2 Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation. 4 What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

This verse describes the devastation of a locust plague taking place in Judah as a result of their nation (God’s chosen nation) being judged for their sin.

When Locusts came, they covered the earth for several miles; and wherever they spread, the greenness of the land entirely disappeared. All the crops of the land were consumed, and the trees and plants were stripped of their bark and leaves.

So, Joel continues his instruction… and this is where we find the word “SPARE”.

Joel 2:15-17 (NKJV) 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; 16 Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. 17 Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, "Spare Your people, O LORD, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?' "

1. Spare

Here the priests were commanded to pray, “Spare Your People.”

The meaning of this word in the Hebrew language is to look upon and extend compassion and pity. It is to ask God to extend mercy towards us.

Nehemiah used this word in Nehemiah 13:22 Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of Your mercy!

Here the same word for “spare” is used in asking God to “show mercy.”

*Mercy is when God does not give us what we deserve!

In this instance, it means: God does not complete the punishment for our sin we so deserve ….

What the prophet Joel is bringing out in our passage is a serious call to prayer, because God’s people had moved away from their covenant relationship with the Lord through outright disobedience to His commandments, and as a result the Lord has sent an army of locust against them, which was eating away at their crops and everything green.

So, Joel does not deny the sins of Judah, he instructs the priest and all of Judah to ask God for mercy, to have compassion upon them, and to spare them of this judgment even though they did not deserve it.

Do we ever come short of God’s call?

We need mercy

Do we ever pray for someone who we know deserves punishment for their disobedience? They need Mercy

What about in praying for our nation; Do we ever feel the need to pray for mercy and ask God to spare us?

We need to weep and mourn asking for God to spare us, to have compassion upon us, to extend to His mercy to our loved ones…

I believe that God will honor the prayer asking Him to step in a spare us.

I believe He desires to have compassion; to extend to us His mercy… not because we deserve it, but because of who He is, because of Hus love for us.

And so, the first word is “Spare.”

2. Restore

Within God’s promise given by Joel, after the priests were called upon to pray and ask God to spare the people. The Lord’s promise is that He would, but not just spare them, but He would restore to them and what they had lost because of sin.

Joel 2:25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.”

Think of that word “restore”….

What do you think of?

>This word expresses the NT principle of Grace.

Grace is what takes place when God blesses us, when He gives to us, even though we do not deserve it.

In scripture, as in this passage, it can mean to end or finish something … In this case it began with first stopping the locust, then replacing that which had been stolen or destroyed.

Jesus said, John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

It is Jesus’ desire is to give abundance in place of Satan’s famine and destruction.

To see this come about, Jesus tells us that the strong man, that is, Satan, must be bound so that he stops plundering the promises of God.

Matthew 12:29 “How can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.”

Luke 11:21-22 (NKJV) 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. 22 But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

This is the perfect picture of Grace! We pray, asking God to restore that which has been taken. Restoration begins with binding Satan and his attempts to steal, kill, and destroy. It is God stepping into the lives of sin bound people and stopping Satan’s robbing, plundering, ensnaring, and imprisoning.

Look at this very informative verse by the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 42:22 “But this is a people robbed and plundered; all of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; they are for prey, and no one delivers; for plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore!’”

We can pray this restoration over the lives of our families, our church, our nation…. believing by faith in God’s word, asking according to His Word, that He will restore.

But something more about God’s restoration, and that is He adds to it blessings in abundance.

Joel 2:26 “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame.”

Earlier the promise was recorded that God would not only fill the barns with grain, and the vats with new wine and oil, but that they will overflow in abundance. He also promised the former and later rains to bless the people to see this promise come to fruition.

God’s desire is then to restore, not only what has been taken, but even more as the Bible says that He is able to give above and beyond what we could even ask for or even imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

Again, this is the picture of Grace… Grace empowers us to live above the life of sin that had enslaved us. That’s what our lost world needs.

Grace is often preached as though it is an insurance policy against judgement. Years ago, I remember an argument was made that kids, high schoolers were going to be sexually active, so they should have access to ways to prevent pregnancy and disease.

That idea is pretty much (maybe a stretch) the definition that “Grace” has evolved into; men are going to sin, I am going to sin, I am going to want to sin… so I need insurance that I am protected against the damaging effects of that sin!

We need the restoration through GRACE that turns us, that heals us, that frees us from the strong man so that we can live holy lives…

One of the most often used passages that is quoted about “Grace” is found in

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

But let’s take one more verse…Verse 10

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

What this passage is clearly saying is that God gives us that which we do not deserve, He gives us salvation

This salvation is by faith alone, faith in Jesus, but the result of the salvation He gives through grace will be good works.

That’s what this world needs!

And so, the second Intercessory prayer word, once we ask God to spare us, is to restore us.

3. Draw

John 12:31-32 (NKJV) 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself."

Jesus said, John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

It is the love and compassion of our heavenly Father who draws us towards Jesus so we can believe in Him..

It is because of His drawing that we can accept Him as our Savior and Lord and we can have the assurance that God will raise us up into everlasting life.

David said, Psalm 65:4 Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Of Your holy temple.

The intercessory prayer for God to draw

should always be a part of our prayer life for this world we live in. They need to have their eyes and hearts opened to the necessity of the Lord.

We need to pray that God will draw those outside of the faith to come and hear about His Son, and the salvation He brings.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

In these difficult days, these days of darkness in which we are living;

With all the problems we are experiencing, we ourselves need the drawing power of God flowing through us. We need that hunger that He gives.

4. Revive

Psalm 85:6 (NKJV) 6 Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?

To Revive us, is to bring back to life what is dead within us. This is the heart of God and the heart of the resurrection.

John 10:10… I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

To revive is to bring back to life that which was alive but is now wounded or dead.

And this applies to every area of our lives, not only the physical, but the emotional and spiritual as well.

For all of who have experienced slipping further away from God rather than running towards Him, this is a prayer to be restored again… It is a prayer that not only would God draw us but would open Himself and our hearts that we (or they) may experience the closeness and life with Him again.

It is a prayer to be returned to that first love relationship (Revelation 2:4).

But there is even more. God doesn’t just want to rescue us out of our bondages, but His desire is to take us into a good land where we can walk with Him and be His people. He wants to give “abundant” life.

To be revived then is to live in the abundance of God’s love for us!

To experience it on a first hand basis…

We can pray the will of God to “Revive us.”

Revive my family, Revive me friends, Revive my church….